A Difficult Game About Climbing is a difficult game about climbing

I’m not sure how I, a committed Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy fan, managed to miss A Difficult Game About Climbing. It is, like its obvious inspiration, a difficult game about climbing, but here you’re using your arms independently to grip and hoist yourself rather than hooking and swinging a pickaxe. It is, also like its obvious inspiration, frustrating and moreish, like a scab you keep picking at.

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I spent two hours getting beaten up in Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance

Recently, I spent around two hours with Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance, the Persona 5: Royal-fied version of the original SMT V. Vengeance promises many new things: a revised battle system, a new story branch, new areas, and more. What I found when I played, was several punches to my metaphorical ribs. A few to my gut. Sure, I spent some time with the new stuff, but really, I spent most of my time being absolutely demolished in turn-based battles against various demons of a phallic and non-phallic nature. I will now attempt to summarise my time against these creatures, wish me luck.

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Spooky throwback Elder Scrolls ’em up Dread Delusion leaves early access in May

Dread Delusion is a creepo-tastic open world RPG that positively reeks of King’s Field and the Elder Scrolls of yore. Created by Lovely Hellplace and published by horror anthology specialists DreadXP, it’s so far up my alley it’s probably been mugged by some kind of hideous clockwork cutthroat – and yet somehow, I’ve never played the thing. I’ll be rectifying that on 14th May, when Dread Delusion leaves early access.

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Razer to pay out over $1 million in refunds over its misleading (and hideous) Zephyr face mask

Razer, makers of various pretty good gaming peripherals and one deeply questionable face mask, have been slapped with a $1.1 million fine by US regulators after said mask was determined to have misled buyers over the amount of protection it afforded. Kotaku reports that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) took issue with Razer’s claim that the Zephyr, an RGB monstrosity released during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, could act as a medical-grade N95 respirator – it could not – and will allocate $1 million of that fine towards refunds for fooled, if colourfully illuminated, buyers.

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Supermarket Times embodies a unique and quiet bovril-fueled brand of anarchy

I once went back to a gathering after a friend-of-a-friend’s metal gig that I distinctly remember not because of either the party or the show, but because we drunkenly went to a big Tesco afterwards to get snacks. I also distinctly remember making a not-completely serious but also somewhat true statement at the party about how that Tesco trip was the most fun I’d had in months, after which one of the metal men sneered at me. I felt self conscious at the time, but I’ve since grown comfortable enough with myself to realise that the metal man was a joyless fool, and going to big supermarkets is at least as fun as going to average metal gigs. There is nothing a drop D power chord can evoke in me that compares to the feeling of blurrily espying a chocolate trifle in the reduced to clear section. So I wish to bring your attention to Supermarket Times.

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Manor Lords VR mod suggests that it would make a terrific god sim

I don’t have a lot of interest in VR these days, but I do have an interest in the beautifully realised miniature doings of your villagers in Manor Lords, the city builder that is currently rather popular on noted purveyor of ye finest interactive entertainments Steam – and which now has unofficial VR support care of Flat2VR and Praydog’s UEVR.

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Elder Scrolls and Fallout devs Bethesda want to release games more often, but making them last is more important

Bethesda Games Studios are thinking about how they can release games more frequently while still ensuring that they have a healthy audience for years, the Elder Scrolls company’s king wizard Todd Howard has remarked in an interview with Kinda Funny, from which Alice B has already scientifically extracted some titbits about forthcoming Starfield expansion Shattered Space.

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Retro RPG Beyond Galaxyland has vibrant pixel art and Pokémon’s creature collecting

The debate on whether sticking the word ‘space’ in front of something instantly makes it better rages eternal with the heat of a thousand space-air fryers, but the yaysayers are at least victorious in the case of retro-futuristic RPG Beyond Galaxyland, in which turn-based combat is aided by your pal Boom Boom, who is a space hamster with a gun and a little waistcoat. I like this creature , but honestly, you could replace them with a sentient bin bag, and I’d be happy. With pixel art this vibrant and detailed, I reckon even a bulging sack of coffee ground and banana peels would be worth adventuring with. Don’t do it, though. It’s a good guinea pig.

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Centum is a horror adventure about training up an AI, also featuring a demon catphone

Trailered last night, Centum is “an unreliable narrative-driven adventure where everything may be a lie”, according to the Steam page. Does the suggestion that everything may be a lie also apply to the suggestion itself? Is this an unreliable Steam page? Perhaps the game is secretly a cheerful Playmobile platformer with plentiful ledge-assist, rather than a horrible point-and-clicker that starts you off in a dark cell with a bunch of obviously cursed artefacts, and gets steadily worse.

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